


Stargazing

by arcane_alien



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Bonding, Gen, Not a reveal fic, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24345940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcane_alien/pseuds/arcane_alien
Summary: Danny is late to come home one night. Maddie, worried, goes out to look for him, and instead finds Phantom stargazing in the park. Poorly written Maddie/Danny bonding.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 134





	Stargazing

It was just past midnight, and Maddie Fenton was on the hunt. Today, though, it was not a ghost she was looking for. 

The moon cast a dim light over Amity Park, and star twinkled overhead. Maddie’s face was twisted in concentration as she jogged through the streets, searching for her son. She had not seen him since he left home for school that morning. At first, she assumed he was late home because he had detention, or maybe he was with his friends at the Nasty Burger. She spent much of the evening telling herself as much. Maybe he went over to Sam’s house. Maybe they went to the arcade. 

Around ten, she gave up on the idea that he was just somewhere else. The arcade was closed, as was the Nasty Burger. She called the Mansons. They had not seen him. According to Sam, he had gone home two hours earlier. She called the Foleys. They said the same thing. 

She was frustrated. She knew Danny had been acting strangely the past several months. He was visibly tired, he was constantly getting detentions, and his grades dropped severely. All that said, this was the first time he had just not come home for hours. As time ticked away, she became more and more concerned about his sudden disappearance. 

After calling his phone and getting sent to voicemail three times, she realized that the only thing she could do was search for him herself. 

Ectogun at the ready, she strode through Amity. Where else might her boy have gone? As she passed by an alleyway, she looked down it. No Danny. And no Danny in the other one, either. She sighed, and kept walking. 

Her son’s behavior lately was becoming problematic. She would have never thought that he would be acting like this. His drop in grades did not bode well. It was only freshman year, but if he continued to underachieve the way he was, his dreams of working at NASA would likely never come true. She knew he was smart, but without the proof of that, and that he could work hard, he was going to struggle to find a decent college that would accept him and a decent job that would hire him. 

He constantly seemed to not be getting enough sleep. She had seen bruises and scrapes on him, as if he had been getting into fights. He was secretive and tense. Was he being bullied at school? What was keeping him up at night? 

The detentions. She had lost track of how many he had at this point; there were so many. What he was doing to result in them, she did not know. He only rarely got in trouble in middle school, and for the first month of high school, he maintained a clean record with a problem. But now he was kept for detention almost every day, and reportedly had been skipping many of them. 

Several minutes later, she found herself at the gates of the town park. She almost laughed at herself for not thinking of it sooner. There was no reason Danny could not be here. Maybe he decided to stargaze, since the sky was so clear. Maybe she would join him. They looked up at the night sky together frequently when he was little. Why not do it again now? 

She tiptoed through the gate and began to follow the gravel path towards a clearing, where she knew there would be a good view of the sky. If Danny was at the park, he would most likely be there. 

As she approached the clearing, she noticed a faint, eerie glow. Perhaps it was a flashlight, or Danny’s phone screen. No, it was not either. It was far too green to be coming from those. Puzzled, she jogged closer. 

A figure was visible in the center of the clearing, laying down. Maddie creeped through the trees to the side of it, hoping to get a better view of whatever it was. She dropped down behind some bushes and poked her head up from them just enough to see it. 

She’d recognize that white hair anywhere! 

It was the ghost boy, laying face up in the open. His hands were under his head, and he seemed to be looking up at the sky. He appeared serene, as if he was just stargazing. But what could he possibly gain by doing that? All he was doing was leaving himself vulnerable to attack. It was not for enjoyment, right? 

Her research indicated that ghosts could not get any enjoyment from anything but destruction and their obsession. But she was struggling to figure out why else he would be doing this. There was no tactical advantage. She disliked the ghost boy, but she would never say he was stupid. Only heartless, as all ghosts were. 

She considered her options. Her first would be to leave Phantom alone and continue searching for Danny, since he clearly was not here. Or, she could take the opportunity to capture Phantom, and then go back to searching for Danny. Perhaps she could start by asking Phantom what he was doing out here, then capture him, then go back to searching for Danny. 

Admittedly, she was curious, and Phantom was a rather formidable ghost. Trying to get at least a few answers from him without resorting to a fight would probably be in her best interest in the long term. She did need to get back to looking for Danny... but a small detour would not be the end of the world. 

Maddie crept out from behind the bushes and approached Phantom. She sat down on the grass beside him. Something about this felt oddly familiar to her, but she brushed it off and looked back to Phantom. He seemed to not notice her. She sighed, and looked up at the stars. 

How was she to initiate this conversation? She supposed she could just ask outright. She could also wait for him to notice her presence, but given how absorbed he was in what he was doing, she doubted it would happen quickly. Why was she so conflicted over how to talk to this ghost kid? He was a ghost. It did not make a difference. 

“What do you want, Maddie?” Well, that solves that dilemma. “Here to try to capture me and rip me apart ‘molecule by molecule’?” 

“No!” What did she want, though? “I... I was going to ask you what you’re doing here! Haven’t you got better things to do than stare at the sky for hours?” 

“Haven’t you got better things to do than bother some teenager?” He retorted. “I’m just trying to relax for a little while!” 

“You’re a ghostly menace! I think I have reason to wonder why you’re not off terrorizing the town for once.” 

“I don’t terrorize the town!” He said in offence. “Besides, can’t a guy have a hobby?” 

“You’re a ghost. Ghosts don’t have hobbies. They don’t have interests outside of their obsession, and yours seems to be wreaking havoc!” She was getting annoyed quickly. Everything she knew pointed towards all ghosts being heartless, obsessed manifestations of ectoplasm and post-human consciousness. 

“Yeah, well maybe this ghost is different, because this is definitely an interest outside of protecting your town, and I’m definitely a ghost.” He was also becoming quickly agitated, and she decided that it might be a good idea to steer the conversation in a different direction before the ghost boy decided he should terrorize her. 

“Okay, okay. I just don’t understand. All of my research...” 

“...was entirely based in theory?” 

“...Fair point.” 

There was silence again, before Phantom pointed up into the sky and said, “See that? That’s the Herdsman, and that star right there is Arcturus.” He smiled. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the best month for constellations...” 

“When did you...?” 

“I wanted to be an astronaut before... before I died,” he whispered. 

“Oh.” She recalled that he was a teenager, and that he began haunting the town fairly recently. He can’t have been older than fifteen when he died, judging by his appearance, and he must have died within the last two years or so, judging by the clarity of his memories from before it happened. 

“May I ask how? How you died, I mean.” 

“A lab accident. Electrocution.” Interesting. She briefly wondered where this lab was and how he managed to mess up that badly. “You really shouldn’t ask ghosts that question. It’s considered rude.” 

“Oh.” She was not sure how any ghost could consider that rude, since they were meant to be emotionless husks of what was, but she decided to just go along with it. 

She couldn’t believe she was still here talking to this ghost kid when she still had her kid to find. Oddly, she found him and her Danny quite similar. Danny had dreams of going to space. The two of them used to stargaze together frequently. And now here she was, doing it Phantom instead. 

She gestured to the stars and asked, “Have you ever gone up there? You know, since...” 

He looked to her, at first with a confused expression, and then with a thoughtful one. “I... never thought of that before. Maybe I should try that some time...” 

Once again, silence fell over them, and Phantom looked at the sky again. This encounter had been enlightening, to say the least. She would need to look further into these things he mentioned – hobbies, rudeness. 

“What are you doing out here, anyway?” Phantom asked. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” 

“I was looking for my son. He should have come home by now.” 

“Oh.” 

“Look, it was nice talking to you-” Phantom laughed.- “but I need to go back to looking for Danny. I’ll see you later.” 

Maddie stood up and dusted off her teal jumpsuit. Once more, she looked down at Phantom, into those electric green eyes, before turning on her heel and walking back towards the park gates. She needed to figure out where she should search next.


End file.
